The Evangelical Alliance Italy is distributing aid and Bibles to tens of thousands of refugees who have fled North African countries in recent months. The alliance is supporting migrants gathered on the island of Lampedusa and in a refugee camp in Mineo, Sicily.

Church services were held across New Zealand Sunday to remember those who died in the devastating 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck the nation's second largest city, Christchurch, earlier this week.

Writing in the National Review on Monday, the former Bishop of Rochester said British Prime Minister David Cameron was right to criticize the doctrine of multiculturalism in his recent speech at the Munich Security Conference.

In a telegram to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the Pope spoke of his "profound pain and firm condemnation" of the attack and "his feelings of spiritual closeness and heartfelt condolences to the victims' families."

Torrential rains in the mountainous area around Rio de Janeiro have triggered one of Brazil's worst ever natural disasters, with more than 400 people still missing and an estimated 20,000 people now homeless.

A Vienna-based watchdog released a new report where it voiced concern over the ability of Christians in Europe to publicly express their faith. It warned that discriminatory laws were preventing the equal exercise of freedom in the areas of speech, conscience and religion

A mother of two has become the first Christian woman in Pakistan to be sentenced to death for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, a field laborer in her thirties, was handed the sentence by a court of sessions in Punjab province on Sunday.